Monday 29th July 2019

38th anniversary of the marriage of Chas and Di.

Also: Monday.

Back to work.

Its funny, we could sleep the whole weekend, and yet are u at dawn with thoughts of what to do with our time, and yet Monday comes round, we just want to stay in bed and slumber.

And after a weekend filled with nothing much, there was always the thrll of looking forward to the weekend filled Outlook inbox once I logged into work.

But before then, Jools made coffee, and then, once she had left, I went on the cross trainer. The i pod had been charging for six months since I last went on, so was all ready to go. Scully looked at me with dirty looks as I began, disturbing her from her slumber on the spare bed.

As luck would have it, a series of my favourite upbeat tunes came on: Chumbawamba, Helen Love, Thomas Dolby, Sheila E and the Hoodoo Gurus made the 20 minutes fly by. But being July, I was hot and bothered by the end, but still smiling.

I had a shower, got dressed and made another coffee, had breakfast of fruit, then was ready for the working day, all by eight in the morning.

And to work.

And I can now reveal that on Friday afternoon, the project I have spend 26 months working on, produced its first electricity. This makes me feel warm inside, and at the time, gave me goosebumps. Sometimes, it does feel like we change the world, on turbine at a time.

Yay.

I had taped, or the electronic version of it, of the final stage of Le Tour, and planned a quiet afternoon on the sofa, but meetings got in the way, and I needed to go to the doctor's to pick up my pills.

Nothing major, just blood pressure. But, I was out, and it was a nice day, so better had set out.

I left at half three, walking to the end of the street, then down Station Road, then back up the other side into the village, taking the back lane past the village pond (do not feed the duck bread) and past the school and up the slope to the surgery.

I get my pills, 9 quid a packet, and am out again in a few minutes, back down the slope then out past the old Red Lion to the top of Norway Drove, where down below I could see the lane at the bottom of the dip.

I took a camera, but not a macro, as I wanted to record the walk rather than plants. Though I did see some fine late summer plants, including toadflax and hogweed. Blackberries were ripening, and near to home I even same a sloe, turning purple and it and many others will be ready to harvest.

I walk down the Dip, passing hedgerows full of butterflies and bees feasting on flowers. At the bottom there was some deep and sticky mud, with just enough room to pass by without falling into the foot-deep tractor tracks.

And up the other side, past the chicken roaming free in Fleet House, than back past the butterfly glade and across the fields.

I sat hot and bothered in the shady patio, sipping on iced squash, while the cats reminded me that it was dinner time.

For dinner I cook maple syrup chicken, stir fry and noodles.

And it was magnificent, even if it was near to eight when we ate, as Jools had gone to yoga.

There was still time to wash and tidy up, make coffee and feast on a Oreo Magnum before going to bed more on the Skunk Works.

A fine day.